The Monochrome Metamorphosis
by one hundred zeros
Summary: Before they met, Shirogane was nothing to Akira; after they were pulled apart, he was everything. Forever is a promise. "I will return." 1sentence challenge, 50 word theme gamma. Shiroaki.


**Disclaimer: All recognizable plot and characters belong to Kaili Sorano. No copy-right infringement intended.**

**Companion to The Neverending Infinity and Chasing Love and Tomorrows**

**50 word theme: Gamma - The Monochrome Metamorphosis**

#01 -- Ring

"I will return, and we will meet again."

#02 -- Hero

The Rei king had been all he had ever wanted to be, the young shin, all he wanted.

#03 -- Memory

It is a little hard to remember now, Akira thought, the things they had used to do together, not his smile, nor his touch or even the exact blue of his eyes, and the only thing that he has to cling to were the whispered 'I love you's which, like a mist clouding his mind and confusing his way, grows dimmer by the day.

#04 -- Box

It had been a gift, the small ornament that was meant to hang off the handle of his knife, and although he had never used it, now he cannot even bare to look at it.

#05 -- Run

In his dreams, he is always running, running after that swiftly disappearing shadow that passed over the landscape of his dreams and flinging itself from the edge of the world to the monochromatic beyond which he cannot touch.

#06 -- Hurricane

He came like a wild silver wind that had blown itself into Akira's world, stayed for fleeting moments to mess up his life, his feelings and his dreams, before leaving as quickly and unannounced as it had come.

#07 -- Wings

The paleness of his hair and his skin and the burning cerulean of his eyes made his beauty almost coldly inhuman, like an angel fallen from the skies.

#08 -- Cold

The first night Shirogane left, Akira felt a strange coldness settle within him, a coldness which had never left, and which, he suspected, will never leave.

#09 -- Red

They were connected by the red thread of fate, destined to meet regardless of time, place or circumstance; the thread may stretch or tangle but it will never break.

#10 -- Drink

Now that he thought about it, after everything, Shirogane still had not trust him with himself because Akira knew nothing about the Shin, not his favorite colors or his birthday or the food he liked to eat (if he even ate at all).

#11 -- Midnight

Somewhere, in the still darkness, he thought he saw a slight shift in the shadows, but he put it down to the untamable longing in his heart.

#12 -- Temptation

He wanted to go to the shadow world very much, to just appear there one day and destroy Homurabi and everyone else, before taking back the person who had been his ever since the beginning of time.

#13 -- View

Shirogane, he knew, liked to watch the stars from the rooftop, and during the first week the Shin disappeared, Akira had climbed up there and did the same, suddenly understanding why the shadow had so often done so -- the stars in their motionless hanging in the cold sky seemed to be filled with such heart-wrenching loneliness.

#14 -- Music

Drowning in the cacophony of noise, searching for the one voice that could wake him up from this twisted nightmare.

#15 -- Silk

The white sheets glinting slightly in the dark, reminded him of Shirogane's beautiful long hair, which Akira now realized with a slight pity that he had never seen unbraided.

#16 -- Cover

He came in the cover of night, to watch the boy sleep, heart filling with unchecked longing at all those years of separation, wanting to, and yet not daring, to wake him up.

#17 -- Promise

Akira had tried to believe in promises, to believe that forever existed in the world, but perhaps it was only ironic that the person who had broken this promise (and also his heart) was the one person who had ever asked him for his trust.

#18 -- Dream

Waking up in the middle of the night to see the shadow in his usual place by his bedside, Akira is afraid to reach out, afraid that it was only an illusion, but also afraid not to and remain trapped in the twisted nightmare forever.

#19 -- Candle

A shadow's existence flickered the way the candle flame flickered, darkening and fading, never constant and gone in the faintest wisp of smoke.

#20 -- Talent

All he had ever done was to leave holes - empty spaces - in his words, in his lies, and in Akira's heart.

#21 -- Silence

Neither could speak, struggling with their thoughts, unsure of what to say or how to say it, unable to apologize for the years spent ignorant, unknowing and without message of the other and finally meeting again.

#22 -- Journey

"It has been a long time, Akira."

#23 -- Fire

He hates the burning that suddenly ignited within him at the sight of that longed-for face, and, closing his eyes slowly, he looked away.

#24 -- Strength

Knowing that Akira was waiting for him had been his greatest strength.

#25 -- Mask

They had both been hiding, he realized, behind sweetened truths and untruths, tainted by memories and blood and death, and the selfishness of both their being.

#26 -- Ice

His touch was cold, so cold, almost burning itself into his skin, but Akira felt that he did not mind -- if perishing in this piercing, biting cold was to be his punishment, then he would gladly accept it for that one moment of sin.

#27 -- Fall

He had been falling, all this time he had been falling (spinning**twisting**_**drowning**_) in this silent darkness, unable to reach out with tired arms for the distant sky.

#28 -- Forgotten

"I still remember, Shirogane, your promises -- of love, of forever and of returning one day."

#29 -- Dance

They had, for all eternity, been circling around each other in an intricate pattern of dark and light within this monochromed eternity, coming together and being torn apart, yet always, _always, _meeting again.

#30 -- Body

To hold him close again, that was all Shirogane ever wanted.

#31 -- Sacred

Akira was the one thing, only thing, in his shadowed world that was absolutely sacred.

#32 -- Farewells

They had never really said goodbye, and it hurt, more than he knew, because there were so many things he had wanted to tell the Shin, about himself, about his fears, and has life, that in the end he had trusted him and loved him.

#33 -- World

Like companions, dark and light painted the world.

#34 -- Formal

"It is nice to have you back, Shirogane," Master said, a smile on his lips, sensing that the turmoil within Akira's heart had finally settled down after so long.

#35 -- Fever

It did not matter what happened, he had lost Shirogane too many times for him to be taken away again.

#36 -- Laugh

Like the first time they met, there was still that beguiling smile on the Shin's red lips, the same smooth, deceptive words as though nothing had changed, as though he had never been away -- tadaima.

#37 -- Lies

Their time together had been nothing but a web of lies -- their entire existence together had been a lie, because light and shadow were never meant to even touch.

#38 -- Forever

Forever is a promise.

#39 -- Overwhelmed

The sheer relief to see his face again was so great that for the first time in his live, Akira felt a burning sensation behind his eyes although he did not cry.

#40 -- Whisper

I love you.

#41 -- Wait

It does not matter how many days/years/centuries it took, Akira knew that he would always have waited, waited until the end of eternity.

#42 -- Talk

They did not need words to understand what the other was thinking -- they more deeply connected than that -- and so Shirogane knew that despite Akira's cold countenance, the boy was happy to have him back.

#43 -- Search

Shirogane had searched an eternity for the boy, and Akira had lived for all his life just to meet the Shin.

#44 -- Hope

"He will be back, Akira," came Master's comforting words, "you should know better than anyone else that the kings cannot die."

#45 -- Eclipse

His existence was of a darkness so blinding that it became all of Akira's world.

#46 -- Gravity

Drawn so inexorably to the one thing he was forbidden to.

#47 -- Highway

This feeling of being caught in time with no past, no future, no destination, merely living because he had to -- he hated it.

#48 -- Unknown

Before they met, Shirogane was nothing to Akira; after they were pulled apart, he was everything.

#49 -- Lock

They were both so similar, so cold, so aloof, so heartbreakingly beautiful and distant that their hearts had never learned to love.

#50 -- Breathe

Together, to them, was everything.

**A/N: Fin. I hope you have liked set Gamma of my 1sentence series, once again reverting back to the ever-wonderful Shiroaki.**

**I have made this set a little darker than the other two, and it also has a (questionable) plot. It follows the anime storyline but can be understood with the manga plot as well. Basically, it is a collection of Akira's thoughts after Shirogane left and the Shin's eventual return. It is quite jumbled up and thus does not really follow a straight chronological timeline.**

**I am hoping to do another pairing for set Delta. Any suggestions? The last set, Epsilon will be Shiroaki as well.**

**MoonMyst**


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